We did the right thing on net filter: Oppn

TONY Abbott says quickly scrapping a coalition policy that could have imposed an internet filter on all Australians was the right thing to do.

Ethernet cables are seen in a server room

OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says the coalition's response to its bungled internet filtering policy was "adult" because it nipped the controversial plan in the bud.

But federal Labor says the opposition was deceptive and tried to sneak through a major policy in the final hours of the election campaign.

The coalition was in damage control on Friday and hosing down claims an Abbott government would impose an "opt-out" internet filter on all Australians.

The coalition policy to protect children surfing the web promised a default filtering system, which critics claimed amounted to internet censorship.

The opposition has since retracted the offending section, blaming the "mistake" on a few wrongly worded sentences.

Mr Abbott said the initial document was "poorly expressed" and the mistake was admitted and fixed.

"That's what we do. That's what an adult government does," he told reporters in Victoria on Friday.

"If it (a government) realises that something has been said that shouldn't have been said, it instantly corrects it."

Mr Abbott restated the coalition didn't support internet censorship and only wanted to give parents the ability to "protect their children" from potential dangers online.

But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the "debacle" was symptomatic of "evasive" and "deceptive" behaviour by the coalition.

"How is it that with 24 hours to go, the Liberal party thought they could get away with sticking a policy out there online to bring about internet censorship for the nation, and get away with it," he told reporters on the NSW Central Coast on Friday.

"Obviously that was the plan, until people just rang the bell on it."

One group disappointed by the coalition's backflip was the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL), which had believed its long campaign for such a filter had finally been successful.

"For a fleeting moment last night it looked like the coalition was in agreement with its colleagues in the UK," ACL managing director Lyle Shelton said in a statement.